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Monthly Archives: April 2016

New Jersey = Mothership

27 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by Phoebe in Home, Jersey Moments

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Tags

jersey, spring

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Somewhere along the wandering lines of my life, I started thinking of New Jersey as the Mothership. Born and raised in the Township of Neptune, this description seems appropriate.

beach-weeds

Though the sand and soil on which my baby toes trod has no true name beyond what we humans (temporarily) bestow, I too am named. Jersey girl. Tristate resident, East Coast style. Yankee. American.

I leave, yet I do not. The smells, the sights, the feel are stamped upon my brain. Every new place I visit I impulsively, helplessly compare. Haven’t lived on that crabgrass patch, that blond stretch of overheated beach, that collection of crab shacks and kitsch, that mass of shopping malls, for twenty years, but nor can I abandon it. Follows me -to the Ring of Kerry, to Paris, to Boston, everywhere. The Garden State can’t stop, won’t stop, refuses to let me go. And I find I don’t want it to.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Hey, Mama Jersey –beam me up!

Lets Rename the Rainbow for Prince

22 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by Phoebe in Uncategorized

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comics, gratitude, inspiration

Dear Prince:

Thank you for so many things.

For being the pop-culture bookend of my life, opposite Michael Jackson.

For displaying your flamboyant masculinity that operated in wild, electric opposition to the stoic, colorless, emotion-stripped version I was sold in school and social life.

For your lush, full-band sound and music gifts that were the soundtrack to my childhood: 1999, When You Were Mine, Little Red Corvette, Raspberry Beret, Purple Rain, Sign O’The Times, Diamonds & Pearls, Kiss, and Nothing Compares 2 You.

For not being too annoyed or embarrassed to show up to those award shows where the greater Black community claimed you so desperately, it must have chafed. Or, one might say, for your grace.

For showing us how to reclaim your Self when corporations tried to own you beyond what was appropriate or possible.

Finally, it was your image I recognized when I noticed a comic on the wooden, window-side shelf at Carla’s Book Shop in Neptune City, NJ. Strongbow, the character created by Wendy Pini, resembled Prince but behaved like Clint Eastwood, and he drew me into one of my great loves –Elfquest in particular, comic books in general.

Lastly, thank you for purple. I vote we, in the U.S., rename that color for you. ROY G BIP for evah.

Prince_Strongbow

Red orange yellow green blue indigo PRINCE

Enter the Twitter: Slush Pile Edition

20 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by Phoebe in Writing Life

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gratitude, social-media, writing

Interrupting this regularly scheduled WHL to re-post tweets. Yeah, I said it.

A Bit of Background
This past week, I participated in an event where I pitched two of my unpublished novel manuscripts on Twitter as part of an event called ‪#‎DVpit‬. Essentially, it was a giant, Twitter Accelerated Slush Pile for would-be, hope-to-be, will-be authors, specifically writers of color and/or folks from marginalized or underrepresented communities, and works featuring the same. Why? Because have you seen publishing? Because agents and editors and writers and readers and their familiars have long been feeling the lack and seek to address it with, among other perhaps more traditional methods, ❤‘s.

Something About Process
I have an affinity for hyper-summary. Usually I can’t get this function to work with my own writing, but thanks to #DVpit (Kudos Supreme to organizer, literary agent Beth Phelan) I was inspired to get down in it, chopping words LEFT and RIGHT! The situation looked a lot like this:

 

OK Fine, The Tweets
For the most part, these are posted in the order I wrote them, with the initial efforts taking themselves quite seriously and the latter . . . well. You’ll see.

Note: mg = middle grade; novelette = wee novel

Three_Tries_Tweet_1Three_Tries_Tweet_2Confessions_Tweet_1Confessions_Tweet_2Confessions_Tweet_3Confessions_Tweet_4Three_Tries_Tweet_3

I’ve got a few favorites. How ’bout you? 

Measure Your Life in Books

13 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by Phoebe in Readin'

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book-love, library-lovin, nerd-out

read_steps

Recently I trimmed my To Read list to around 100 books, down from 160. Why? Well, I’ve long been aware of the likeliness I won’t survive it, especially with how I cheat on my list. Prodigiously.

It can be disconcerting to stare your mortality in the mouth with each log-in to a website that is intended to provide hours of . . . you know, nerd-alicious, collect-em-all delight (as well as sell me things. Don’t play coy, social media. We know.)

I’d been telling myself for months, seasons, years, to aggressively trim my To Read list. Only the books I honestly want to read; that I’m likely to. Nothing I’ve already read and wish to read again (count those ‘done’). None of those coquettish frips that briefly turn my gaze during a bookstore browse or library-stack wander, web crawl.

Truly, the browse must be considered the enemy of all tidy, thoughtfully curated To Read lists. The browse will skillfully and blithely seduce your partner, steal your bosom buddies, and convince your parents that honestly?, it would have made a better child.

It’s a home wrecker, the browse. I love it. By which I mean I succumb to it. Often.

Exhibit A as to why my To Read list never got any shorter, no matter how I apply myself to ordering library books online, shortly delivered straight to my grubby paws. (Digital library catalogues are an amazing, boundless, fortuitous magic. If you haven’t yet availed yourself –don’t. There’s no room for you. It’s for ME.)

Borrowing from comedians, I’ve transformed my problem into a punch line: I’m not going to survive my reading list! (Hahah! Lets joke about our deaths.) I know for a fact that I cannot claim a speck of originality. Plenty of people pre-mourn their lives; some even produce clever, pictographic charts that terrify my friends.

The awful truth is, of course, that my Goodreads To Read list is by no means comprehensive. Why? Because I read nearly everything. Blame a life-long habit instilled by my parents. Blame curiosity. Heck, blame the printing press and desktop publishing! Everywhere I go, something to read . . .

Non-exhaustive list of reading treasures traps:

  • Books – picture books, chapter books, novels, cookbooks, craftbooks, feminist theory, African American experience, fantasy, organizing, productivity, lite Buddhism, etc.
  • The funnies, comic books, graphic novels
  • Magazines
  • Zines
  • Circulars
  • Instructions
  • Newsletters
  • Flyers
  • Mail
  • Better mail (personal letters! postcards!)
  • Notes my mother writes on the backs of envelopes to detail the number of remaining eggs in the ‘fridge
  • The Internet (what, you don’t read the Internet?)
  • Blogs
  • Emails (sorta . . . less and less)
  • Multi-year fanfiction binges
  • Subway/bus ads
  • Cereal boxes (back when I used to eat cereal; I miss you Puffins!)
  • Personal care and Dr. Bronner product labels (OKAY???!!)

Thankfully, there are also things I don’t read:

  • Signs – especially anything over 10 feet tall/wide
  • The endless barrage of sales pitches from credit cards and my retirement plan
  • Names – if my brain doesn’t feel like sounding them out (I blame you, sci-fi & fantasy authors)
  • SHAMELESS, COPIOUS ALL CAPS (gah! stop shouting)
  • Lame circulars
  • Political campaign anything (except for postcards, those are short)
  • Flyers displaying 5+ fonts or bold type layered thicker than newsprint on a piñata

What about you? Say you meet your reading list in an alley and, zimbo-bapo!, you magically gain martial arts skillz . . . WHO WILL WIN?!

lion_rear

Wherever You Are, Be There

Whole Heart Local is a webhome of Phoebe Sinclair, writer, wanderer, friend.

Whole Heart Local celebrates beauty at home and afield. Welcome. Stay awhile.

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Fresh From The Stacks

The Kids: The Children of LGBTQA Parents in the USA

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--Beautiful and compelling. I've been wondering about these kids.

Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well

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--NEEDED.

Sitting Bull: Lakota Warrior and Defender of His People

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--Very cool. Very depressing.

Webcomics I'm a'Lovin
Wilde Life - surprising mid-country paranormal & a grumpy werewolf- GO! READ!

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